


On the skin

by imsfire



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: But Not In The Usual Way, Established couple, Everybody Lives, F/M, Jyn trolling K-2, Sex Pollen, Team as Family, Teasing, the myth of sex pollen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 12:34:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29436150
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/pseuds/imsfire
Summary: Jyn decides to play a joke on K-2.
Relationships: Cassian Andor/Jyn Erso
Comments: 21
Kudos: 54





	On the skin

**Author's Note:**

> A small piece of silliness for Valentine's Day!

Jyn took a deep breath and let it out slowly. A couple of hours ago, she’d noticed just how bad she was starting to smell. It was hardly surprising; she’d hiked across miles of scrub to the perimeter of the Fenari Reserve, and up a steep trail through the forest to this hidden spot. Her nostrils were long-accustomed by now to the rank sourness of sweat layered upon sweat. Disgusting, but – _well, so long as I don’t get so high that the enemy sniffs me out…_ She had a job to do, and that was all that mattered. 

Her hands lay in front of her, cradling the second of the team’s two sniper rifles. Bare hands; in this sticky heat her usual half-gloves chafed too painfully to wear. Her skin was grained with dirt; there was sand on the back of each hand, and under her fingernails, and here and there greenish smears from the foliage she’d pushed through and crushed as she scrambled to her vantage point. All along one bare arm was a bloom of golden dust; pollen from one of the big tropical flowers that dipped and swayed above her, perfumed and drooping, like high-born ladies in a sauna. 

But the only sauna was the private cave system below her. The famous underground hot springs where their contact had requested a meeting. Her sniper scope was trained on the entrance, down there where the grey-gold limestone walls of the defile opened out, and rose up in sheer cliffs to where she lay waiting, hidden in the thick forest growth. 

The cave mouth was dark, half-covered by a single heavy drape of muslin. Two attendants sat to the side, vaguely on guard but chiefly playing cards in the shade, with the only other sentient in the area, the keeper of a small drinks stand. Occasionally one or another got up, to sell a chilled bottle or take entrance tickets from the trickle of visitors who made it this far, all the way through the Fenari Canyon, to enjoy the secluded springs. 

Meanwhile Jyn kept watch, gritty, dusty, stinky, sweaty and sticky. It shouldn’t be long now before Cassian and Kay would re-emerge. 

Her eyes found the shadowed place high up on the cliff-side on the far side of the clearing, where Baze, she knew, was also waiting motionless. The other sniper rifle in his capable hands. Cassian and Kay had gone in unarmed as requested, or at least, unarmed bar a back-up blade or two hidden very, very carefully. Which left her and Baze as the next-best marksmen in the team. Chirrut was running back-up on this one, sitting amid the crowd of meditating tourists at the entrance to the canyon, an hours’ walk from here, keeping an ear out for anyone else coming their way; and Bodhi was waiting to bring up the ship for their evac. Waiting and no doubt chewing his nails. In theory he and Chirrut had the easy jobs here, but she knew he never saw it that way. 

But it wasn’t a bad mission, just boring. And very, very hot.

She rubbed the back of her neck where the grime felt even more itchy and gritty. _Ugh. Filthy. I’ve probably got bugs in my hair by now. As well as pollen and leaf-stains and **so much dirt**_.

She remembered some weird old jokes about pollen, and allowed herself a faint smile. 

_At least I’m not allergic._ And at least the jokes were just rubbish people talked when they had nothing better to do.

Movement, across from her vantage point, at the mouth of the cave. It was Kay; he came stalking slowly and haughtily out of the darkness and scanned the clearing before turning to give Cassian a nod; all clear. Then Cassian emerged, and the contact, a pale Nautolan with a lopsided mouth. Cassian looking handsome in his smart civvies, slightly pink from the steam-heat but his usual impassive, determinedly relaxed self otherwise. The Nautolan was visibly more at ease than when they went in. They nodded to one another and parted ways, for all the worlds like colleagues who’d met by chance and had to endure the embarrassment of taking an unexpected sauna together on a hot rest-day. 

The Nautolan paused to buy a drink and take a seat in the shade. Cassian snapped a command at Kay, perfectly in character as the arrogant Imp officer on leave, and the two of them headed off, back down the narrow rock-cut passage and into the ravine. The way to safety.

Jyn sat up slowly, glancing around; all clear, still. The contact stayed sipping their drink and doing nothing. No sign of trouble there. She murmured into her comm. “Baze. You’re good to go.” She was already collecting up her things, preparing to follow Cassian and Kay out, though she would stay above them and make her way through the wooded ground at the crest of the defile. She’d give them a minute or so lead but could still be there as back-up if there was any need. They’d be well-covered, with her behind and Baze in front. 

_If your back-up is in front of you, are they technically a front-up?_ She grinned at the idea.

Fuck, it would be good to get back on the ship and into a ‘fresher. The thought of the sonic purring, the vibrations lifting off all the dust and stink and crap off her skin, was enticing. 

And the mission had gone off without a hitch, by the looks of it. Which meant now was the time to be even more vigilant. The minutes when you relaxed and let yourself think you were in the clear were often the most dangerous of all.

She’d finished breaking the rifle down, stowing the scope in her pack and holstering the side arm at her hip, where it would look as innocuous as any gun ever did. She re-tightened the fastenings on the strap that held her folding truncheon, checked that her second blaster and her blades were all quick to hand. Back waistband, ankle, forearm, hip pocket, and the polished hairclip that flicked open into a little knife shaped like a half-moon. All set.

Jyn slid down the rock face from her perch and strolled out across the plateau, staying parallel to the ravine. Shoulders relaxed, hands in pockets, backpack casually slung at her side. In a few more miles she would have to assume the character of someone who’d trekked through this wilderness reserve for pleasure, not business. All her alertness hidden under a calm cool she assumed as easily as breathing. She set off along the path above the defile, always keeping Cassian and Kay in sight. The heat must be even more intense down there for the two of them, confined to the narrow walkway between the cliffs. 

The same giant tropical plants she’d had to hide among clung to the walls of the canyon, hanging down into their path; trailing vines, drooping flowers. She grinned as one of the long sprays of blooms thwacked Kay across the cranium, leaving a thick trail of the bright yellow pollen. 

He fixed his oculars on the offending plant and said something petulantly to Cassian. Entirely possible he was trying to start some random argument about the Potency Pollen legend, just in order to disprove it. Like some other droids she’d known, Kay had an almost-organic penchant for stirring things. Almost as bad as that veteran Astromech back on base, the one he’d called _petty and easily provoked_. 

And with that thought, suddenly an idea struck her. _Let’s see if I can get a rise out of Kay._

There were more of the vines up here, trailing from rocks and sprawling across the ground. She reached out as she came abreast with one and tugged off a couple of the flowers, to tuck them behind her ear jauntily. The heavy pollen tickled her skin as it fell. That should do the trick. She walked on, coming to the end of the canyon, and paused to watch Cassian and Kay passing through the meadow beyond, threading a path through the groups of nature-lovers and meditating well-being disciples. 

Baze came down from the heights on the far side, moving quietly as always despite his height and heavy pack. She caught his eye and saw his nod of confirmation; turned to scramble down through a narrow gap in the rock walls, so she could stroll into the open and join him. Behind them, Chirrut quietly picked up his staff and fell in with them, smiling like just one more tourist at the end of a day’s hiking. 

Five minutes more and they’d be back at the ship. 

“Just to warn you, I’m going to tell Kay I’ve got Potency Pollen all over me,” she told them.

Baze raised an eyebrow. “Little sister, I hate to tell you this, but”-

“It’s all rubbish, I know. But back me up just the same?”

“The Captain needs no excuse to assist you in the ‘fresher,” Chirrut said.

“You two are a fine pair to joke about sharing showers! Just back me up on this, please? I want to see if I can convince Kay it’s for real.”

Baze was grinning now. “You want to kid the droid there’s such a thing as Potency Pollen?”

“Yup. And I’ll need to get Cassian and Bodhi on-side, otherwise it won’t work.”

Baze said “The Captain doesn’t like having practical jokes played on him.”

“But he teases Kay all the time, and so does Bodhi. Only I don’t know enough maths and engineering to make their kind of jokes. Kay was so snippy with General Syndulla’s Astromech last week, I think he’d benefit from a reminder that he’s fallible too. When the data is misleading.”

“A poor harmless droid being misled by his human companions.” Chirrut shook his head theatrically.

“Oh, don’t be such a cold blanket.” But perhaps he had a point. Already she was thinking better of the idea. “Do you really think I’m being mean?”

“Jedhan culture plays jokes as a form of love. Nothing mean about it between people who share the joke,” Baze said. “But Kay won’t be in on it. So it is - a little petty.”

 _Petty and easily provoked._ She bit back a grumpy retort. She was being no better than Kay.

And Cassian did hate practical jokes.

“I suppose you’re right.” 

The countryside was opening out ahead of them, and there was the road to the local town, the cluster of hotels and guest houses around the perimeter fence of the reserve, the grassy area where a few dozen tour-craft and private ships had put down. The smart little hopper they’d come in on sat among them. Cassian and Kay had already boarded; Bodhi stood by the open ramp, watching out for the rest of them. He waved back in response to Chirrut’s friendly shake of his staff.

Jyn waved too. _Fine, I won’t do it. Silly old Kay, he’ll never know how lightly he got off._

But as they came up towards the ship, Bodhi came trotting over. In a low voice he said “I should warn you, Kay is trying to wind Cassian up. At least, at least I think it’s all a joke, but you never know with him. Something about sex-pollen.” His eyes darted down to the broad smear of gold along Jyn’s arm. “You might want to wipe that off. He already said you’re bound to have got covered in it, ‘given its reputed powers’.”

Jyn stopped short. She’d been willing to let go her mischief, confronted with the image of Cassian upset by the teasing of _poor harmless_ Kay. But if Kay was up for mischief of his own, she’d be damned if she let him get away with it unchallenged. “Okay, guys. Gather round. New plan!”

It took a little longer, to put into play and carry through. But the pleasure of seeing Cassian’s eyes brighten and crinkle as he realised where she was going with this was intense, and just as preciously dear to her as when they communicated a mission change or an agreed doubt to one another with a single glance.

And even better was the point, five minutes later, when the two of them had staggered into the private cabin with maximum dramatic effect, moaning theatrically and with arms around one another, and from behind them as the door swished shut Kay’s disgruntled voice said “Well _I_ think _my_ version was funnier.”

She pressed her face into Cassian’s jacket to stifle a spluttering laugh. “Should I be sorry? I spoiled his joke.”

“He can take it.” Cassian wrapped his arms around her again, in a hug as natural as the previous lustful embrace had been exaggerated. “I’m glad he’s working on his play-acting skills, but he was overdoing it a bit.”

His rare, sweet grin made her want to melt even more than the planet’s heat.

“Now, where were we?” he murmured. “Ah yes, you’re Covered in Mythical Potency Pollen and Now So Am I. And I have to help you.”

“That’s right.” Jyn leaned into him, laughing, holding him. “O Captain, help me, help me please!”

“But of course” He tilted his lips to hers. “Always.”


End file.
